| February 17 2005 Review |
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 Click Here To Order This Item Now Ninco ’56 Sebring Corvette By Shawn Smith Click here to have Genie read this review out loud to you in Microsoft Agent AUDIO! [Click here to chat about this item on our Forum] Appearance:  So here is our first look! Wow what a great-looking car! Lots of white and blue trimmed in chrome pulls off a realistic replication of period era racers. At first I was a little taken back by a lack of details but I had to remember that cars of this period weren’t always terribly elaborate, visually speaking.  Setting it down on the track for the first time it was funny how my perception of size was effected. For some strange reason this car appeared very large to my eyes but once I compared it to other cars, take for example the Ninco AC/Cobra, I was a little shocked to determine that the ’56 Corvette wasn’t as large as I perceived it to be.  It has to be the shape of the car as it just comes off looking a lot longer than it really is and honestly that’s not a bad thing. Something else that’s not bad is the paint job as it is one of the shiniest paint finishes you could ask for. The finish was so nice in fact that I had to be strategic with where to place it on the track to avoid glare from the overhead lighting.  Take for example this image of the tampo-painted hood straps. I must have moved the car a half dozen times before I could get a clear image. As you can see though the buckle and leather straps are very well done and very crisp. Also, ignore what looks like a small white scratch on the closest blue racing stripe. As you’ll see from the next photo that scratch was either another lighting problem or camera issue.  While there isn’t much of an interior it does have its details. A small chrome gear shift handle sticks up straight from the center console and white painted gauges are tucked nicely behind the large white steering wheel. Our driver is fitted with a blue open-faced racing helmet and goggles as well as a blue collar/scarf thingy…  Jumping up front you are greeted with large round headlamps framed in chrome trim rings, separately applied amber markers below those and a chrome bumper/grill section running across the width of the nose. Directly under the grill are some external driving lights that thankfully seemed to take some pretty hard hits without flying off.  The front end isn’t without its modeling imperfections however. Fans of the true 1956 Corvette might be quick to jump on how the grill and front fender guards were not a one-piece affair. Another item that jumps out at you is the noticeable gap between the top of the grille and body panel and yes the markers under each headlamp were commonly clear instead of amber but now we’re just being picky.  Looking at the back of the Ninco Corvette we have even more chrome-accented pieces. The trim around the taillights, fender guards and rear bumper detail with license plate frame are all nice touches that look great.  Performance:  The time has come to flip the Ninco Corvette over and take the car apart. Only two screws, highlighted above by the green dots, will need to be removed to separate the body from the chassis.  Since the body is now off I figured some of you might want to see the underside of the body including the interior pan used. No our driver doesn’t have any legs but think of it as weight reduction.  The chassis set up is nice and simple. The bright pink label of the NC-5 ‘Speeder’ motor might make some of you happy although there are a lot of you out there who prefer a lower RPM like the NC-1 or NC-2 motor for your Ninco classic range. I have to admit that it is a lot of motor for this car and it’s perhaps a little too easy to lose traction under rapid acceleration. Somewhere secretly deep down I love the loss of traction and roasting off the tires. Shhhhh, don’t tell.  On the back-end of the motor we find a brass pinion gear meshing with a black plastic crown gear spinning the axle inside of nice shiny brass bushings. Make sure to check these bushings before taking to the track as sometimes these can pop free during shipping. You should be able to notice this right a way as the rear wheels will look too high in the body.  In front of the motor sits the notorious Ninco button magnet doing its best to provide as much down force as possible. The placement of the magnet should please many of the light or non magnet fans as its position inside of the chassis makes the Sebring Corvette prone to lots of tire spinning tail slides.  Helping in the ‘tail-sliding’ are the thin and ribbed tires provided with the Ninco Corvette. On Ninco track I did manage to get less sliding than on my local club track although it still slid like a champ when pushed to the edge. The gold rims of the Corvette thankfully had minimal mold flashing so truing the rear tires was a simple matter.  In case some of you noticed the red spacers on the front axle in my original chassis pictures the picture above should explain why. No the red spacers weren’t added by Ninco but were added by me instead to correct the side-to-side free play that was present. While some of you might prefer reducing the length of the axle instead I thought it would make the wheels sits too far inside of the fenders so I opted for the shims instead. So, how did it run? Not so surprisingly it ran exactly like I thought it would. The motor creates a lot speed and the magnet creates only a little down force so the end result was similar to the most recent Ninco Cobra I tested. Slides were both predictable and controllable but the loose nature of the car kept fast lap times down compared to the previously mentioned Cobra. At 118 feet the best lap achieved by the ’56 Sebring Corvette turned out to be a 13.52 and just maybe if it had the wider rear tires of the Ninco Cobra it could have pulled off the Cobra’s 12.91 time. The Final Verdict:  So… at the end of a fun day of testing what did we end up with? For starters we found the new Ninco ’56 Sebring Corvette to be a very attractive car with a great finish even if some of the smaller details were not the most perfectly recreated. In the running department the Corvette aught to please those of you who have grown to love the Ninco classic line even if it might be a smidge over powered for a couple of you. Either way it was a blast to drive and even more fun to throw sideways out of a turn only to hear it roast the rear wheels for three or four feet down the following strait-a-way. Having an affection for the Corvette I would probably like it even if it didn’t run at all. Thankfully for us it does! Thanks go to the folks at MRC – Model Rectifier Corp for providing me this new Ninco ’56 Sebring Corvette slot car . As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy Slotting! Shawn Smith SJSlots@hotmail.com |
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